San Jose Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle, left, joins goalie Evgeni Nabokov, of Kazakhstan, in reacting after the puck went into the net for the winning goal by Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly in the overtime period of the Avalanche’s 1-0 victory in Game 3 of the teams’ NHL Western Conference first-round playoff series in Denver on Sunday, April 18, 2010. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Hyoung Chang) ** MAGS OUT TV OUT MANDATORY CREDIT **

Somewhere in the back of every NHL defenseman’s mind, the fear exists that something will happen just as it did to San Jose’s Dan Boyle on Sunday night. Defensemen get paid to help keep pucks out of the net, so one can imagine the anguish when they put it in their own — especially in a playoff game.

“I think every defenseman in the league has probably done it before, in some game,” Avalanche veteran Adam Foote said. “It’s not a good feeling.”

Hall of Famer Paul Coffey found that out in 1996, in a Western Conference final series for Detroit against the Avalanche. In Game 1 at Joe Louis Arena, Stephane Yelle threw a puck at the net from deep in the left corner, with Coffey standing sentinel in front of Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood, no other Avs player in sight. Coffey tried to clear Yelle’s crossing pass, but ended up shooting it right in his own net. The goal helped Colorado get a 3-2 overtime victory, and the Avs won the series in six games.

“I roofed mine. I tried to get it into the corner, but I didn’t have my blade right and it went top shelf. (Osgood) still should have had it,” Coffey joked on Monday. “I remember being asked after the game, ‘What were you trying to do?’ I remember saying, ‘Obviously, I wasn’t trying to do what I did.’ It was a stupid question, but it had to be asked. If we did these things on purpose, we’d have (Wayne) Gretzky’s records.”

Coffey was a teammate of the man with probably the most infamous own goal in playoff history, Steve Smith. It was Smith’s 23rd birthday, April 30, 1986, in a tied, third-period Game 7 of a Campbell Conference playoff series with the bitter rival Calgary Flames. Smith banked a shot in off his own Edmonton Oilers goalie, Grant Fuhr, at 5:28. Calgary’s Perry Berezan dumped the puck in deep, Smith retrieved it and was trying to send a lead pass to the other side of the ice when it struck Fuhr instead and bounced in. The goal helped stop Edmonton’s Stanley Cup streak at two. Smith buried his face in the ice after the play and didn’t play another shift in the game.

Smith won three future Cups with the Oilers and eventually endeared himself to Oilers fans for owning up to his own goal, receiving baskets of supportive mail.

“Human error. I’ve just got to live with it, I guess,” Smith told the Edmonton Journal in 1986. “I got good wood on it.”

Fuhr attempted to deflect the blame, saying he shouldn’t have had his pad so close to the near post. But the incident remains wedded to Smith alone.

Said Coffey: “The thing about Steve’s was, we had lots of time left (in the third period). Thirteen minutes or whatever it was. We didn’t do it.”

Boyle may not have been the last player to put his stick on the fateful puck that ended Game 3. Replays indicated that Ryan O’Reilly — credited with the goal — may have gotten a blade on Boyle’s backhand clearing attempt. Nonetheless, Boyle has had to live with his 15 minutes of infamy.

“But he’s a veteran guy, and he’s going to come back and play hard,” Foote said.

Avalanche D-man John- Michael Liles wasn’t about to gloat over the Boyle incident.

“It was just one of those things. Playoff hockey,” Liles said. “It was a good break for us, and we’ll take it. It’s a game of funny bounces sometimes, and we got one in our favor this time, but it can happen to anybody.”

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